‘Israel needs divided and weakened Palestinians’

Palestinians hold national flags as they celebrate after an announcement of a reconciliation agreement in Gaza City April 23, 2014 (Reuters / Ibraheem Abu Mustafa) / Reuters

The Israeli government is very disturbed by Palestinian unity and seeking to use the peace process to divide them again so as to continue the land grabs, James Petras, Professor Emeritus of Sociology at Binghamton University, told RT.

RT:The Israeli Prime Minister has condemned
the Palestinian reconciliation deal, saying that Fatah has to
choose between peace talks with Israel or peace with Hamas. Do
you think a resolution is possible?

James Petras: Netanyahu’s statement is farcical
because Israel has played off Hamas against the leadership in the
West Bank and through “divide and conquer” has expanded
its settlements in the West Bank. The unity of Gaza and the West
Bank government will strengthen any peace process by giving the
Palestinians greater leverage. The fact of the matter is that up
to now Netanyahu has made no positive moves to cease the
settlements, the land grabs and to stop the military incursions
into the West Bank and Gaza. The move by the Palestinians is
certainly a very positive move, it lessens tension within the
Palestinian community, and I think the Israeli government is very
disturbed by this unity and is seeking to use the so-called peace
process to divide them once again, weaken interlocutors on the
West Bank and continue the land grabs. The peace process
according to Netanyahu is essentially to negotiate with the
divided and weaken Palestinians in order to continue its ethnic
cleansing in the West Bank.

RT:Israel reportedly carried out an air
strike on Gaza soon after the deal was announced. Can we expect
tensions to escalate in the region because of the deal?

JP: The deal isn’t a source of the tensions. The
tensions are precisely because Israel has not respected the
frontiers and the territories in which the Palestinians govern.
These arbitrary violent incursions by Israel are really creating
the tension and certainly the rejection of Israel of a joint
negotiating team of the Palestinians is likely to precipitate
greater conflict.

RT:The US State Department has called the
deal “disappointing.” But why would the US and Israel oppose what
Palestinian people see as a reconciliation and a matter of
internal affairs?

JP: Unfortunately the US has not been acting as
an honest broker. From the very beginning of the conflict between
the Palestinians and Israel, the US has been very much engaged
with the Israelis, supplying them with $3 billion, essentially
and military aid and providing them with diplomatic coverage for
all of their human rights offenses. The fact that the
Palestinians are united and the fact that the Palestinians will
go with the common agenda will strengthen their position in
negotiations. Washington’s partisanship with Israel will be
ineffective in this light, it will not be able to buy off Abbas
and turn him against the leadership in Gaza. I think Washington
has lost a client in the Palestinian movement and that they will
be moaning this and also commiserating with the Israelis on the
fact that they do not have a complacent interlocutor.

RT:Hamas and Fatah have brokered similar
deals in the past, but failed to keep them. What are the chances
this time they will implement the agreements?

JP: There are no guarantees; they have been
falling out in the past. It seems to me that the fact that Abbas
hasn’t been able to secure any concessions and support from
Washington and the Israelis continued to swallow up land in the
West Bank, he’s finally recognized that cuddling up to Israel was
not going to get him anywhere. The logical turn to the unity with
leadership in Gaza is a result of the failure of his efforts to
conciliate the Israeli sacrifice the Palestinians in Gaza. The
policy of conciliation has not worked and the reconciliation with
the Palestinian community throughout the region is the next
logical step.

The US policy towards Israel is very biased. It is largely
influenced through the pro-Israel lobby in the US which can
command three-quarters of the [members of] Congress and has
significant direct representation in the executive branch. This
has prejudiced the US role as an honest broker in these
negotiations. So I’m not surprised that Washington is
disappointed because their Israeli ally is not in such a strong
position as it has been.

RT:Do you believe that the deal actually
puts the two-state solution off even further?

JP: Israel has never believed that there is a
two-state or one-state solution. They believe in one Jewish state
and the marginalization of whoever doesn’t qualify as an Israeli
Jew. It’s a policy of ethnic cleansing, it’s a question of
dispossession of the Palestinians. I think the facts on the
ground speak for themselves. Whatever the Israelis say, the fact
of the matter is that they have not ceased to seize Palestinian
land in the West Bank particularly since 1969, over the past year
over 20,000 Israeli settlers have seized more Palestinian land
and projections are for another 10,000 in the coming month. The
fact of the matter is that it’s a question of survival today for
the Palestinians, whether they will have any land to work with
and to form a new state. The Israelis are in a big push and the
formation of the government in Israel – Naftali Bennett, Avigdor
Lieberman, Netanyahu – represents the most extreme right-wing
government in the history of Israel and their intention is not to
co-exist with the Palestinians but to expel them completely out
of what they call Greater Israel.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.